ABSTRACT
In 1992 the resident population of Germany included about 6.5 million people from 200 countries ranging in number from one (Vanuatu) to 1.85 million (Turkey). This is equivalent to 8 per cent of the total population. While many of these were temporary residents (students, for example), a substantial proportion consisted of long-term residents who therefore constitute part of the permanent population. The continued insistence of some politicians that ‘Deutschland ist kein Einwanderungsland’ and their rejection of the characterisation of German society as multicultural therefore fly in the face of the facts: in some major cities (e.g. Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Berlin) ‘foreigners’ account for up to a quarter of the population.
